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Post by chris16 on Jun 25, 2011 13:22:52 GMT -5
By 2000, I meant the 2nd half of the year starting with his 4 month title reign.
Apparently everyone says that he was stale when Austin returned in September 2000. The funny thing about is that when Austin had come back, Rock's character was almost nothing like how it was when Austin was there in 1999. Here's some major differences:
1999:
-Walked slowly to the ring
-Paused in the entranceway and looked at the fans before walking down ramp
-Didn't do the 1 fist pose yet (In a way it seemed like he was ripping off Austin a bit when he started doing that)
-Wasn't using the sharpshooter yet
-When posing with a title belt he just raised it up slowly and didn't flip it up in the air or drag it to the ring (Again another Austin move)
-Had a deeper voice
-Didn't talk fast
-Was a lot more arrogant in '99, by the 2nd half of '00 he was more intense than arrogant
-Used to trash talk on commentary during matches or when he wasn't wrestling (for some odd reason he stopped doing this in the 2nd half of 2000)
-Was more "rougher edged" (In 2000 his punches looked like was slapping someone, in '99 he actually looked like he was punching them)
-His moves didn't look as sloppy (In '99 his Samoan Drop actually looked like a Samoan Drop, starting in '00 he started half-assing it)
And there's many more differences, I honestly think the '99 version of him was better than Austin that year. It was easy to see why many thought he was lame compared to Austin in the fall of 2000, his character became lamer.
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Post by Long Live the Stream on Jun 25, 2011 14:01:59 GMT -5
As a character, yes. As a wrestler, no. But maybe that was because of the people he was working.
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Post by chris16 on Jun 25, 2011 14:25:06 GMT -5
As a character, yes. As a wrestler, no. But maybe that was because of the people he was working. He may have had better matches in 2000, but like you said it was because who he was working with. |
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Jun 25, 2011 18:25:38 GMT -5
No. I think Rock got better and better as the years went by. Rock may have been a catchphrase-blower for much of 2000, but after a year or so he started being able to cut legitimate promos. His promo against Hogan was amazing, and however hypocritical it may have been, his 'Austin took his ball and went home' promo was stunning and genuinely emotional.
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Post by chris16 on Jun 26, 2011 3:00:57 GMT -5
No. I think Rock got better and better as the years went by. Rock may have been a catchphrase-blower for much of 2000, but after a year or so he started being able to cut legitimate promos. His promo against Hogan was amazing, and however hypocritical it may have been, his 'Austin took his ball and went home' promo was stunning and genuinely emotional. He's always been a catchphrase user. It just didn't annoy people as much in '99 as it did in '00-'02 because he didn't have that high pitched voice and wasn't yelling in his promos. |
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Post by Prince Petty on Jun 26, 2011 4:30:18 GMT -5
Honestly, I think my favourite version of Rock was Nation heel Rock. After he deposed Farooq, and became "ruler". I always thought he had better matches when he was a heel anyway. Against Austin, Shamrock, Triple H and others.
But yeah, his early face run, before he established all of his standard catchprases, was probably better from a promo/character point of view. He exuded a sort of laid back, arrogant charisma, rather than the seemingly adrenaline fueled, high speed delivery he adopted later.
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CJ
Dennis Stamp
C.J. for Friendly wrestling discussion!
Posts: 4,180
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Post by CJ on Jun 26, 2011 7:25:11 GMT -5
Yeah, he was a lot more cooler in 1999. In 2000, you started to notice the differences, and by 2002...he was basically a completely different character
But as far as wrestling ability is concerned, he was at his best in 2002
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Post by Snaptastic on Jun 26, 2011 8:24:52 GMT -5
The only that annoyed me about Rock, is how his voice got gradually higher and higher as the years went by.
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Post by Crazy Diamond on Jun 26, 2011 10:37:18 GMT -5
No. I think Rock got better and better as the years went by. Rock may have been a catchphrase-blower for much of 2000, but after a year or so he started being able to cut legitimate promos. His promo against Hogan was amazing, and however hypocritical it may have been, his 'Austin took his ball and went home' promo was stunning and genuinely emotional. He's always been a catchphrase user. It just didn't annoy people as much in '99 as it did in '00-'02 because he didn't have that high pitched voice and wasn't yelling in his promos. Most wrestlers since at least Gorgeous George used catchphrases in promos. In fact, Rock seemed to use them less as his career went on and I think he quit doing the deep voice because he was a full blown face by the Invasion and it put stress on the vocal cords. It also allowed him to show a wider range of character. In fact, it sounded more that he was using his normal voice instead of talking in deep monotone like he did in 1998-middle of 2000. Austin changed how he did Stone Cold's voice too when he got turned heel in 2001 but nobody remembers that I guess. Personally, pretty much any version of the Rock is cool with me save for Rocky Maivia. I never understood this so-called dichotomy of Rock becoming less popular. Dude was all over the f'n place in 2000-2002 and the fans online who thought he would fail couldn't (and still can't) handle it. As for Rock having better matches because of his opponents, I doubt that was the case considering he was having good matches with people like Test, a green Brock Lesnar, and a broken-down Hulk Hogan. Jericho, X-Pac, even Lance Storm wouldn't have called him easy to work with for no reason. Also, I've never seen Rock have a truly bad match like HHH vs. Orton at WM 25 or Cena vs. Miz at WM 27. |
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Post by Snaptastic on Jun 26, 2011 17:10:59 GMT -5
True what Diamond says. I've never seen a truly bad Rock match...ever.
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Post by quackyquack1 on Jul 27, 2011 10:58:28 GMT -5
I agree, I thought '99 Rock was IMO the most entertaining wrestler that year.
His latter face years afterwards were still good, I mean he was still super over and all that, but in 1999 Rock was as over as Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was still at the height of his popularity.
I mean, when he can be put in feuds with Billy Gunn and a HHH who was still trying to get over as a heel, yet get the same type of crowd reactions Austin was getting going up against Vince McMahon and Undertaker, that's an amazing feat.
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Post by Protest the Chris Hero on Jul 27, 2011 16:53:41 GMT -5
I miss the mid match commentary.
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Post by The Rager (Cole Miner) on Jul 27, 2011 16:54:23 GMT -5
I prefer 2003 Rock over all other incarnations.
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Post by Snaptastic on Jul 27, 2011 17:00:26 GMT -5
Also Austin was stale as hell soon after he returned at Unforgiven 2000. But again, people seem to overlook that.
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Post by Famous Rocking Chimes on Jul 27, 2011 17:06:50 GMT -5
At the risk of sounding incredibly racist (which I'm not), didn't his skin get lighter as well?
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Post by crabnebula on Jul 27, 2011 17:10:43 GMT -5
best versions of The Rock were 97-8 and 03
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Post by thegame415 on Jul 27, 2011 17:22:49 GMT -5
I loved 98-99 Rock, heel and face.
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